Donald Trump spent Wednesday playing golf ahead of his scheduled trip to New York to be impeached in a $250 million business fraud lawsuit filed against him and as he pursued his own case against his former attorney Michael Cohen.
The former president went through a gamut of emotions as he played a round at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, at one point appeared to try to chip his golf ball, then raised his hands above his head and looked frustrated after he took a shot.
Golf was part of Trump’s busy Wednesday as his lawyers filed a $500 million lawsuit against Cohen in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and the former president prepared to defend his business practices in a legal battle with the New York Attorney General.
He drove himself on his golf cart, which is his preference. His Secret Service security detail was close by.
Donald Trump was spotted at his West Palm Beach golf club
He wore his signature red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap with the number 45 stitched on the side. Trump was the 45th president of the United States.
Golfing is one of the former president’s favorite hobbies and he is a regular at his Trump golf clubs.
But also on Wednesday, he sued Cohen, his one-time fixer, for breach of his attorney-client relationship, alleging breach of the attorney-client relationship, unjust enrichment, proselytizing and breach of contract, according to the 32-page lawsuit filed in court.
Trump is asking for the amount of compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial, but his lawyers note that it is “expected to be substantially in excess of five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000).”
Trump’s legal team argued that Cohen violated his attorney-client relationship with the former president “both by revealing the plaintiff’s confidential nature and by spreading untruths about the plaintiff likely to be embarrassing or harmful.” And that Cohen “spread untruths about Plaintiff with malicious intent and wholly selfish purposes.”
Cohen testified in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election and in the Stormy Daniels case. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging the porn star hush money payments, but said Trump ordered them.
The former president was given a round before he was expected to leave for New York
Trump will be impeached Thursday in a case involving his business empire
Trump’s lawsuit also says Cohen defamed the former president through the “publication of two books, a podcast series, and countless mainstream media appearances.”
Cohen worked for Trump from 2006 to 2018 in both his Trump Organization and as his private attorney. In 2018, he was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations.
Later on Wednesday, Trump will make his first trip to New York since his indictment on charges related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. He pleaded not guilty.
But he will be impeached on Thursday in another case, this one related to his business empire.
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, three of his adult children, and the Trump Organization last September after a three-year investigation.
She accuses them of misleading banks and others by providing financial statements that misrepresent the value of his assets, including his golf clubs and the hotels that bear his name.
James is demanding $250 million and a ban on Trump and his adult children from doing business in the state again.
Trump is expected to be questioned at James’ lower Manhattan office. He has attacked the Attorney General, a Democrat, for leading a “politically motivated witch hunt.”
Trump sued his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen (left) for $500 million; Trump will be impeached in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against his business empire
Trump will take a shot at his golf course on Wednesday
The former president enjoys golf and often plays at his Trump properties
He and his lawyers tried to get the case dropped, arguing that, as a Republican, he was “picked and subjected to selective treatment” by James.
The judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, denied the former president’s move and ordered the lawsuit. Engoron also rejected a separate attempt by Ivanka Trump, named in the lawsuit, to dismiss the allegations against her.
Trump previously sat for a statement at James’ office last August, just weeks before she filed the lawsuit. At that point, he refused to answer questions and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination more than 400 times.
Engoron has scheduled a trial for Oct. 2, shortly before the Republican presidential primary begins.
He agreed to give lawyers more time to review evidence, interview witnesses and file motions. Trump’s impeachment is part of that process.
Donald Trump on his golf course
Donald Trump’s motorcade makes its way through rainy Palm Beach
Donald Trump with his caddy
Donald Trump drives his own golf cart, but is followed by the Secret Service
In addition to James’s case and the hush money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump faces a third lawsuit in New York: a civil lawsuit stemming from columnist Jean Carroll’s claims that he raped her in a department store locker room in the United States. 1990s. Trump has denied the allegation.
The trial begins April 25 in Manhattan federal court.